DI Box for Bass in to Mixer

C

Crackhatch

New member
I think I must have a lego brick lodged in my brain, because I can never quite get my head around DI boxes, despite doing an assignment on them last year. I'm looking for one around £30 to send my Squire Jazz bass into my Xenyx 1222fx mixer (which has phantom power).

Am I right in thinking that I need an active DI Box? Also, if this is true, as I have phantom power on the mixer, does this mean I wouldn't need to put the battery in the DI box?

I am looking at the Behringer GI100 Ultra-G Behringer GI100 Ultra-G DI Box: Amazon.co.uk: Musical Instruments Would this be the right buy? Would appreciate the help, cheers!
 
If you have a passive bass, you are generally better off with an active direct box. If your bass is active, passive will be fine.

The Sansamp clones are really cool as well.
 
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Farview said:
If you have a passive bass, you are generally better off with an active direct box. If your bass is active, passive will be fine.

The Sansom clones are really cool as well.
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Oh dear and I was just about to take JG96's advice and get a passive box. How do I know whether my guitar is passive or active? (I'm thick with these things).
 
Right, there would be a battery patch somewhere I'm guessing. Therefore my bass must be a passive as there doesn't look like any battery patch on it. Gonzo-x, thanks for the link, but thats outside my budget, £30 is my limit. It's a toss up then between the BDi 21 and the Ultra.
 
Crackhatch said:
Oh dear and I was just about to take JG96's advice and get a passive box. How do I know whether my guitar is passive or active? (I'm thick with these things).
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Active means it needs power. Does the bass have a battery in it?

I love that JG96 said you don't need active, but then linked you to an active unit.

An active bass doesn't need any direct box at all. It's got one built in! If you absolutely have to connect to an XLR hole, though, like to plug into a stage snake or something, then you need something to convert from the 1/4" output of the guitar. A simple adapter cable would do that, but a passive DI will work in a pinch.

A passive bass into a passive DI might lose a little bit of the very top end treble (mostly the sharpest part of the attack, and it'll be pretty subtle), but it will definitely be attenuated quite a bit. Since the bass signal starts out at least a little quiet and relatively noisy to begin with, the fact that it gets even quieter, and therefor needs even more gain (and all the noise that comes with it) at the other end is not really ideal.

The truth is that just about any guitar pedal will do the job of an active DI pretty well in most cases.
 
I like active direct boxes for almost everything, but sometimes a transformer (like in a passive DI) is the best solution for a difficult problem.
 
This is not really a difficult problem, though. We don't know why we're plugging this bass into this mixer, but a lot of times you can get away with just plugging a bass into a line input. Unless you're really looking for that super zingy thing, the loss of treble can often be a good thing - a sort of free cabinet simulator.
 
True, sometimes the HF loss is an improvement. And you can generally plug an active pickup into a line input. Lot's of options, a few possible bad ways, no one right way.
 
I've been putting the line through an Art Tube MP Original. Nice volume, but there is a sort of secondary disturbance when I play notes through it. So I am selling that on ebay and replacing it with the DI Box
 
BDI21 is a good option. It'll do you well in whole pile of situations as well as the one you've described. It does Sansamp beautifully for a small fraction of the cost.
 
rayc said:
BDI21 is a good option. It'll do you well in whole pile of situations as well as the one you've described. It does Sansamp beautifully for a small fraction of the cost.
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rayc is right on. I'll admit, I'm a bottom feeder, but it sounds like you are too. I'll also admit that, while I do know the difference between active and passive, whether or not the mentioned recommendation of active with passive pickups and passive with actives is true or not is something I don't know.

All I know is that all my basses are passive, and cheapies at that, and I have a BDI21 and I like it.

Could you do better? Sure. For starters, you could get a Fender Marcus Miller Jazz bass. But if you're staying in the low-rent district with me, and it sounds like you are, the BDI21 is more than likely exactly what you're looking for. AND it's cheap. If you don't like it, there are plenty of guys out there who will be more than willing to take it off your hands and you'll only be out a very small amount of money. Literally pocket change.
 
Just to add:

When I said that about the active/passive thing, I wasn't suggesting it's not true, I really meant I don't know.

Farview knows his shit, so if he says so, I'd take him at his word.

Gonzo-X suggested the Tech21 BDI, which would be an excellent choice. Just know that the BDI21 is, as the name suggests, Behri's clone of the Tech21, and it will cost you about $150 less, and the difference probably won't be noticable considering the rest of your signal chain.

If you've got a Squier going into a Behri board, the Behri BDI21 will be more than fine.
 
notCardio said:
...whether or not the mentioned recommendation of active with passive pickups and passive with actives is true or not is something I don't know.
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It's basically true. You can connect active pickups to just about any input, but passives need something with a higher impedance like an active DI.
 
The thing about the BDI21 and the Tech21 that it's a ripoff of, is that you can get a fairly neutral sound, dial in a bit of slightly warm tube-ish sound, or dial in full on grit, so it's really a combo of a DI and an overdrive that you can choose to use or not, which gives you some flexibility for different situations.
 
Does you amp have a DI out? I have the SanAmp BDDI but rarely use it. I like
the tone control on my GK head. Make sure the head is safe to run without a cab.
 
I am surprised no one has mentioned the Radial JDI....great passive direct box for bass and acoustic / electric guitars in to a board
 
joro said:
I am surprised no one has mentioned the Radial JDI....great passive direct box for bass and acoustic / electric guitars in to a board
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Well, I have no personal experience with the Radial, but I know they have a very good reputation. I generally try not to put my .02 in regarding anything I have no actual experience with.

Also another reason I wouldn't have mentioned it is that, considering his signal chain, it seemed like overkill.
 
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